To expect a full refund for school trip

[Ilovearcticroll]

My children were due to go on residential visits which have been cancelled because of covid 19. One school has already refunded. The other says it is taking a long time for them to be refunded so our refunds are delayed.

How long is it reasonable to wait? Not too twitchy now, but would like it sorted out before the end of the school year. Or is that unfair?

We got a refund at the weekend for a residential trip that was to an education authority owned site. Still took from March until now.

Threatening to sue them? What planet are you on @JudyCoolibar?
Travel companies are going to the wall in droves. They are doing their utmost to refund everyone as timely as possible. You honestly think that a school threatening to sue is going to help at all?

OP, at this moment in time my school admin are overwhelmed with dealing with vital issues such as free school meals, safeguarding, tech, along with working hard to ensure when children return next week everything runs smoothly. We have no headteacher, Deputy or site manager currently due to Covid, somactually, spending every day chasing up a holiday refund isn't actually a priority. Our office manager, who usually works school hours only, is currently working 7.30 - 6.30 every day, including all over Easter. She's even working today as we are still open to key worker children.

Our secondary cancelled all the school trips from Easter break onwards for this school year and the money was returned after they got it back themselves.

Our primary school has yet to cancel its year 6 residential trip and says it is waiting for the other side to cancel. At this point, I imagine everyone surely knows it's not going to go ahead and they need to start pursuing the refunds. Hopefully, it will get sorted soon.

If the school hasn’t been refunded yet I’m not entirely sure what you expect them to do.

I'm not sure whether they are implying that we will not be refunded unless and until the travel company refunds them. This doesn't seem quite right.

They can't refund you until the travel company has refunded them, there simply isn't the money and it's not the way school budgets work - money is in specific pots allocated for specific things. They can't borrow from Peter to pay Paul.

will not be refunded unless and until the travel company refunds them. This doesn't seem quite right.

Sorry now but if you're thinking that the school should pay you out of school funds, you're a cheeky mare. Where are they meant to get the money, a magic money tree?

My son's school refunded quite quickly, but not the £200 deposit as per the 'travel company's terms and conditions'! I'm obviously not happy about this as we didn't chose to cancel! There was no free will involved! Has this happened to anyone else?

Be patient! The school can’t refund you until they are refunded by the travel company.

I imagine any travel company that withheld large deposits under the current conditions will not be used by schools to book trips again in future Very short sighted behaviour...

Surely the teachers should just have a whip round to make sure you don't have to wait to same length of time as everyone else?

We are waiting on one from the beginning of April. Be patient - some insurance companies / travel companies are quicker than others.

You will get it back. And those companies that are making it harder for schools to get their money back...your time will come when those schools book with other companies next time...

Yes Bercows I agree. It’s really not fair that OP is left to get twitchy

The companies are hoping that schools will cancel residential trips which limits their liability to refund. The standard argument seems to be that they are offering the 'opportunity' to move trips to next summer, so there is no need for us to cancel. We were lucky in that the balance payment was due just before lock down. I didn't pay it, even though the company hounded me to do so. In the end parents lost their £50 deposit, but it could have been so much worse.

My son's school refunded quite quickly, but not the £200 deposit as per the 'travel company's terms and conditions'!

@matchboxtwentyunwell this is one of the reasons why your primary school is waiting for the other side to cancel. That way you'll get your deposit back too, and there'll be no excess to pay on the insurance policy. They're doing you a favour as well as avoiding extra hassle.
The pp's school clearly took the initiative and cancelled, but that's comme with a big financial downside for parents.

Check who the travel co's customer is - the school or you? Usually schools just act as agent and the contract is between the parent and the tour operator. That said everyone is waiting for refunds at the moment.

Loads of residential centres are closed. No staff.

Without the staff, there is nobody to refund or say there isn't a refund.

The Tour companies and airlines that are open (and haven't gone bust like Shearings) aren't processing refunds quickly or are trying to get people to accept credits instead.

Without the refund or confirmation, there isn't enough documentation/evidence for the insurance companies to finalise a claim.

Without the insurance companies (who are rammed to the hilt at the best of times, never mind when absolutely EVERYBODY is making a claim) finalising the claim, there is no payment.

Without the payment, the school can't make a payment. Because schools don't have thirty grand down the back of the photocopier.

Hounding people who are working from home and demanding refunds/that they get in touch with the insurance and demand a payment/that they make complaints (which are pointless) to companies that aren't even open is pointless, if anybody is thinking of doing that.

It's shit. But it's not deliberate on the part of the schools. It's not even deliberate on the part of the insurance. It can be deliberate on the part of the tour operators/airlines, but not always.

You are just going to have to wait and hope for the best.

Just to give you a bit of perspective from personal experience.
One of my friends owns a travel company organising school trips (and other group trips). Exclusively for private schools but it would be the same process for any other school or group.
The students pay a deposit to the school. The school gives the money to the travel company. These money are used to purchase plane tickets.
The students continue to pay in instalments or one lump sum. The school gives the money to the travel company. The money will sit in a trust account until hotels and venues need to be paid and cannot be accessed willy nilly. This is controlled by the Travel Trust Association. These are not funds the travel company can hold onto to utilise for any other purpose. The funds would simply not be given to the travel company. They would either go to hotel and event suppliers for the trip or they would go back to the client for refunds.
Flight for example might not be fully refundable directly from the airline company but the insurance of the school or of the travel company might be able to make up the difference. This is where the delays might arise.
There is also the possibility of having paid a non refundable deposit which the school might try and get paid back through their own school insurance.

By all means you could chase it up, there’s no harm in it and you want to know what’s happening.
The above illustrates the standard process followed by a reputable small independent travel company.
The company itself might be going under or might have to lay off their staff. None of this will have any negative impact on your refund because the money for the refund are with the airlines and the travel trust association.
You just have to be patient.
The school certainly can’t pay back from their own pockets because every penny they have is earmarked for specific spending.

From a personal experience , one of my children had a school trip cancelled. The travel company sorted everything out at their end. We paid partly directly to the school and partly to travel company. The travel company refunded all we paid to them directly minus the non refundable deposit and minus the airline fare. The airline promised to refund half of the cost. The school is trying to claim back the difference of the plane ticket through own insurance. So we are waiting for the school on this.
The money we paid directly to the school have not been refunded yet. But they will at some point.

Our school cancelled ours at 5pm on day full amount due, anyone who had pulled out before as didn't want to risk whole amount lost deposit. I'm probably in that category as was worried trip may go ahead and it's close trip was on 1st, Italy allowing arrivals in from 3rd so insurer could refuse to pay out from them. Travel company say on their website they won't refund anything, contract is with school. School have put insurance claims in but it's taking a long time - I had already paid full amount that was refunded less deposit within a couple of weeks by school but Squid took another 3 weeks to process for £2.50 and refunded the wrong Squid basket. Did correct it.

School sent a generic e-mail saying some claims refunded for deposit and going through to Squid but that was 2 weeks ago and nothing. So presume I'm not getting it back but who knows. School can only refund when they are refunded. I think the insurers and Squid are flat out with claims. I've got a summer holiday booked directly with hotel / flight companies and it's proving really difficult to get money back even from some refundable in theory but it's unprecedented and quite a lot won't get back I suspect.

Hopefully not too much longer for you to get yours back.

like all travel you dont get refunded until they cancel it not the school theyre hands are tied

Yabu my daughters trip has also been cancelled. They’ve obviously pre paid tickets and coach, etc I don’t expect a refund. It’s just an unfortunate circumstance

I can’t believe anyone thinks the school have the funds to refund parents while waiting for tour companies to issue refunds!

Imagine you were going on holiday with a friend, and friend paid for it on her card, and you gave her the money. Then your holiday was cancelled. Would you expect your friend to pay you back out of her own money before the tour company refund came through?

The fact is holiday companies are drowning with refund claims, so there’s inevitably going to be a delay in many cases. I think we can expect to wait months, and anything sooner is a bonus.

We are still waiting for refunds for 2 trips (one being an expensive ski trip). The school have kept us in the loop with what is going on, which is all I can expect tbh. It is slow and annoying, but if she had gone on the trips, I wouldn't have the money anyway

YANBU to want a refund (legally due) and YANBU to want clearer communication from the school. As PP have said, they cannot give you the money until they receive it either from the travel company/ their insurance.

They may also offer a deferred trip (so you don't have to pay for next year's) as an option.

What communications have you had from the school? A nice email asking for clarification as to the process and options won't hurt. But you may have a bit of a wait. ABTA a d other I dustry bodies have said that usually you should have a refund within 14 days but that refunds are taking considerably longer to process at the moment due to the sheer volume of cancelled trips and events.

Which? has some good guidance and updates on the free part of their website on this. I'd recommend having a quick read about their advice and your legal rights too. Hopefully it will put your mind at ease and it will be sorted. I'm certain the school will be aware of the financial strain on parents at the moment. But if you're not sure what their communications mean,chances are other parents won't either. A polite query is never a bad thing IMO and can often save a lot of stress and resentment.

Our school is alos waiting for some trips to be refunded and for some to actually cancel or the school will lose thousands and then will have to refund parents from our already incredibly tight budget. By all means contact them and ask for an update, but at our place if we were to refund parnets before we got it back ourselves we wouldn't have the money for the extra cleaning we are doing and equipment we hae ordered for opening to more students. We've had to buy more exam desks, we are trying to buy sinks for handwashing stations, and stationary becuase we can't share.... it will be a shipping container full!